Motivation
by Tailsisreal
Summary: A short brotherly oneshot between Sonic and Tails that was written in just a couple hours.  It's a cute, heartwarming story for anyone that doubts their own usefulness from time to time.


Motivation

He could hear the soft footsteps coming up to the door. He noticed them stop, the person outside undoubtedly weighing his options or rehearsing what to say before entering the room. No doubt he was probably also listening, trying to catch the sounds of the crying occupant in the room over the noise of a small television that had been purposefully turned on to drown out the sounds of soft sobbing coming from the small bed. A minute went by as no activity was heard on the other side of the door, a sign that the individual on the other side was hesitant to enter but also concerned about simply leaving. There was that air of tension, of expectation, as he waited for the inevitable turning of the doorknob when the person in the hallway would decide to come in.

After several minutes of this prolonged stalemate ate away at his nerves, the young fox in his bed finally couldn't stand it any longer. "Either come in or go away, Sonic!" the kit yelled, as his voice sounded full of a false anger, an easily distinguishable tone of misplaced emotions.

As a response to the unexpected command, the door to the young fox's room finally opened. Just as Tails had predicted, Sonic slowly entered and walked up to the side of his bed, sitting down at the fox's feet. It was clear that he understood Tails was crying earlier, and Sonic knew it was his duty to try and talk to the distressed kit. "Look, bud, about what happened today… You sure you don't want to talk about it?" the hedgehog muttered as he gazed somberly at the fox curled up at the front of the bed with his head wedged tightly between two pillows.

"What's there to talk about?" Tails' muffled voice replied in a clear tone of defeat as he shifted his tails to allow Sonic more room without sitting on them. "I froze, plain and simple. I wasn't brave enough to save myself by doing something so simple as just jumping out of the way, and now all those people might have gotten hurt."

"Whoa there, bud! What makes you say that? Everyone sure looked fine to me afterward," Sonic quickly interjected.

"Yeah, but what about when you had to grab me to rescue me? You could have gotten killed, and it would be all my fault," the whining fox continued venting his depression, all the while refusing to remove his face from the muffling pillows.

"Ah, come on, bro! You know good ol' Ro-butt-nik could never be fast enough to actually hurt me," Sonic bragged, adding in a short chuckle as he expected the joke to lift the fox's spirits.

"He doesn't have to be if he knows that he can just go after me instead," Tails quickly pointed out, his tears now only seeming to propagate faster after Sonic's quick attempt at humor. "I'm not brave enough to be your sidekick. I just cause more trouble."

Sonic listened to Tails' loud sobs as he watched the young fox shudder while he cried into his pillows. "Look, buddy, no one's gonna blame you for being scared today. Heck, that was probably one of Robotnik's scariest robots I'd ever seen! Even I was scared of fighting that thing!" Sonic confessed as he tried laying a reassuring hand on the fox's shoulder, only to have it shrugged off instantly.

"Yeah right! You weren't afraid at all! Nothing scares you!" the fox protested, knowing that Sonic was only saying these things in order to try and stop his crying and make him feel better.

Sonic, however, could only wish that this were true. No, the real truth was that he hadn't been lying when he said that today's encounter had frightened him deeply, even though Tails was right in that it wasn't Robotnik's newest creation that had given the blue hero his scare. It was the look of paralyzing fear in Tails' eyes as the large robot suddenly switched targets and was only milliseconds from completely pulverizing the young fox. It had been that moment in which Sonic had envisioned losing everything that meant anything to him in this world, and this realization alone had almost frozen Sonic's feet to the ground, nearly costing him his only chance to save the young cub from an undeserving fate.

Shaking off this haunting memory, Sonic tried again to console the weeping fox. "OK, so that's not what I meant to say then. What I really mean is…" the blue hedgehog tried to speak before he was startled by a sharp interruption.

"Forget it, Sonic! I don't want you to tell me something like 'you're still only 7 years old' or 'you're just special!' The truth is that I'm not cut out to be your partner! I can't fight giant robots, or run at the speed of sound, or even protect myself! I'm just a big loser," Tails objected furiously as he curled himself into an even tighter ball and clamped the pillows tightly to his face with his arms despite the unpleasantness of the damp fabric against the fox's reddened cheeks.

Listening to the fox's unexpected outburst and watching the heavy sobs that wracked Tails' whole body with their force, Sonic found himself at a complete loss for words. Situations like these had happened before, but never had Sonic been forced to deal with Tails when he felt this depressed and useless. He knew that saying the wrong thing right now could cause irreparable harm to their relationship, but not speaking at all would only allow things to get worse, too. He let out a short sigh and simply continued to listen, unconsciously tuning his ears to the current commercial playing on Tails' small TV.

"You know what makes me sad? YOU DO! So maybe we can just chug on over to Mamby-Pamby Land, where maybe we can find some self-confidence for you, you Jack Wa-"

The commercial abruptly ended as the small television suddenly crashed to the floor, its screen showing only static as it noiselessly flickered while the object that knocked it from its perch, a large socket wrench, now lay nearby.

The blue hedgehog let out a low whistle in disbelief and admiration at the sudden act. "Nice shot, bro," Sonic muttered, realizing that Tails had somehow managed to knock the small TV down with a blind throw from across the room.

"Heh, it was just lucky," Tails mumbled as nonetheless the fox let out his first short laugh since the incident earlier that day.

Sonic took the single laugh as a sign of improvement and quickly scooted up on the bed closer to Tails while he tried again to lay a hand on his shoulder in support. "Now come on, bud. Maybe you're right about not being the world's best at fighting robots right now… unless they happen to be small TV robots on a shelf, that is," Sonic joked as he felt relieved to hear the young fox chuckle again from beneath his shield of pillows. "But the fact of the matter is, you don't have to be good at everything I am. I mean, just look at all this stuff in here that you've put together! I'll even bet whenever you fix that TV again it will get double the channels than before, and still be for free!" the blue hedgehog enthusiastically tried to cheer his partner by pointing out the fox's own specialized skills.

"And I know that's not all you can do right, buddy," Sonic continued. "After all, who was it that remodeled and flew the Tornado past all those flying turtles and other robots in order to get me onto Robotnik's flying fortress that one time? Or who invented these way cool micro-whatever soles for my shoes that give me traction no matter how fast I'm running and never wear out like my old ones?"

"Well, I did do those, but…" Tails sniffled as his torrent of tears slowly decreased.

"Point is, little bro, maybe you don't have to be as brave as me. Maybe all you have to worry about is just being yourself, and not having to prove that you're strong to anyone. You stood a lot closer to that robot today than even the police did, remember?" Sonic kept up his pep talk, now fueled by the knowledge that it was working as Tails slowly started to relax and the sound of crying quickly ceased.

"Yeah… And they looked pretty scared, too," Tails recalled his observation as the fox's vice-like grip around the smothering pillows lessened.

"Ya see? That means you were actually braver than a lot of people today, bud!" Sonic pointed out as he hoped soon to see the fox's face appear from his tomb of pillows.

Luckily, a few seconds later Sonic got his wish as the young fox slowly extracted his head from between his pillows and looked up at his blue role model. Tails' face was still red and damp from crying as the kit rubbed his runny nose with a gloved hand. His eyes, however, seemed to shine with an inner energy that came from a feeling of acceptance, and Tails couldn't seem to do anything else for the moment other than to lock gazes with Sonic as the fox's overwhelming gratitude wordlessly showed through those bright, blue orbs.

"Thanks, Sonic, for making me feel better," Tails finally spoke after nearly a minute of silence. His voice now sounded like a tone of great relief instead of the earlier anguish and remorse while his tails began waving happily again behind the fox as he sat up.

"Hey, what are buds for, right?" Sonic smirked as he offered a one-handed fist in the air between the two of them.

Tails immediately smiled back and bumped one of his fists against Sonic's playfully in return. "Right," the fox replied with a small chuckle. "So, are we going to celebrate trashing Dr. Robotnik's latest robot with chili dogs for supper tonight?" the young fox inquired.

"Don't you ever get tired of those things at least once in a while?" Sonic asked right back as he remembered having that exact same meal just last night and for lunch the day before that.

"Well… Maybe, I guess," Tails thought as he scratched the underside of his chin, a cute motion that never failed to make Sonic inwardly laugh when he saw the young kit do it. "I don't know then. What do you feel like?" the fox finally asked as he had no immediate alternative to offer.

"I dunno… Maybe something Italian," Sonic mumbled as he tried to guess at what his stomach and taste buds where most requesting at the moment.

"Great! We could order pizza!" Tails shouted excitedly as the kit quickly jumped out of bed and bounced on his feet in front of Sonic.

"Hang on, is that even an Italian food?" Sonic questioned out loud as he smirked at the young kit's eagerness. "Ah, who cares! Pizza it is, little guy!" Sonic gave in to Tails' excitement as he tussled the hair on the small kit's head playfully and got up to walk to the phone.

"Yes!" Tails shouted joyfully as the young fox completely forgot about his earlier sorrow while following out of his room right behind Sonic.


End file.
